CM Punk has weighed in on Pat McAfee’s role in wrestling, and he is not impressed with how the ESPN personality has handled it.
Speaking with Matt Barnes on All The Smoke, Punk was asked about McAfee’s involvement in the WrestleMania 42 main event picture. Punk drew a clear distinction between someone who can attract attention and someone who can actually move tickets, and suggested McAfee has lost sight of where he stands in the wrestling world.
“Wrestling has always, sometimes to a fault, embraced people that we believe can get eyeballs on a product. Eyeballs on a product and people actually investing and buying tickets are two wildly different things. Pat was a wrestling fan who became famous outside of the bubble and was afforded an opportunity to be invited in. Somewhere along the line, he forgot that he was a tourist. To me, that can easily be rescinded. Pat is great at what he does. Pat is not great at what we do. Cody is going to handle it. Poor Cody has to deal with this guy. When he disrespects the business and he says something out of pocket, he’s going to get checked and he’s going to get checked by me. You can’t be running your mouth about ticket sales when you’ve never sold a ticket in your life. I would prefer to not have to deal with Pat, but we’ll see what happens. I don’t think Pat realizes the dangerous things he’s doing,” Punk said.
McAfee was inserted into the WrestleMania 42 main event picture on the April 3 episode of SmackDown, attacking Rhodes and being revealed as Orton’s mystery caller. His subsequent promo addressed poor ticket sales for WrestleMania, placing blame on Rhodes for leading the business in the wrong direction.
Punk responded on the following Raw, telling McAfee he knows nothing about selling tickets and calling for WWE to lower ticket prices, a promo that was not part of the original plan as of the Friday of McAfee’s reveal.
Punk defends the World Heavyweight Championship against Roman Reigns in the night two main event of WrestleMania 42 on April 19. McAfee will be in Orton’s corner when Orton challenges Rhodes for the Undisputed WWE Championship on night one on April 18.
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article, please credit All The Smoke with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
